In other words, pvmsync provides location-transparent, object-based distributed shared memory
(DSM) and POSIX-like synchronization mechanisms, cluster wide. The idea is to facilitate
communications between processes running
on a Beowulf cluster in the form of shared data. Synchronization mechanisms are provided so that independent processes can voluntarily protect access to the shared data objects, and to
coordinate their activities. The pvmsync client library offers an API for these services to C programmers.